Backyard Barbecue Buffet
by AlElizabeth
Summary: Wee!Chester OneShot. John has left his boys without food or money. Dean, though, comes up with a brilliant plan to get some food into his baby brother's belly.


Dean couldn't stand it anymore.

He had to find something for Sammy to eat.

His brother had been crying for hours and Dean was afraid the younger boy was going to make himself ill if he didn't stop soon.

But they had run out of food that morning; Dean had given Sammy the last piece of bread for breakfast and now it was closing in on dinnertime and they had nothing. No food, no money.

"C'mon Sammy," Dean reached a hand out to his brother, "We're gonna get something to eat."

"Wh-where?" the younger boy sniffed.

Dean forced himself to smile, "Trust me. I know where we can get all the food you can eat."

The younger boy grabbed his brother's hand, wiping his face on his sleeve and they walked across the motel to the door, pausing to put on their shoes.

Once they were both ready, Dean reached up and opened the door to the motel room. The parking lot was dotted with several cars, none of which were their Daddy's Impala. Grabbing his brother's hand, Dean led Sammy across the asphalt and onto the sidewalk. Looking down each side of the street, he took a deep breath; he didn't really know where they were going to go but maybe, even if they couldn't get anything to eat, the walk would distract them both for a little while at least.

Dean decided to try and head towards a more residential area. He didn't bother heading towards the shops- no one was likely to hand out free food to a couple of little kids- but maybe they'd get lucky with regular joes cooking outside.

As they walked, Sammy started skipping and humming to himself, confident that Dean would be able to find them food.

They passed a gas station that was boarded up, a factory that had a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire surrounding it and several empty lots full of litter and weeds before they saw a small park.

"Look Dean!" Sammy pointed to the park. A woman was standing in front of a bench, watching a little girl around Sammy's age playing on the slide.

"Maybe we can go there when we've had dinner," Dean told his brother. Sammy nodded and smiled up at him.

The park stood at the entrance to a cul-de-sac where all the houses looked exactly the same. Other than the gardens and the curtains inside the bay windows out front, all the houses were cookie-cutter identical.

Pausing, Dean turned his head to peer at the houses in the semi-circle, trying to decide which one they should go to. There were lots of cars in the cul-de-sac, most of them parked around the round patch of grass in the centre from which a single street light stood sentinel.

As Dean hesitated, a sudden burst of noise rode the breeze, bringing with it as well, the smell of barbequed hamburgers. The boy's green eyes lit upon a house that had a wilting rose garden in the front but a girl's pink bicycle lying on its side on the front lawn.

"Let's go, Sammy," Dean tugged his brother's hand and pulled him towards the house. There was no fence at the side so Dean simply walked into the backyard to see a group of adults and children of varying ages milling around, laughing, and talking to one another.

Sammy's eyes were wide and he stepped closer to his brother. Dean put an arm around his shoulders.

"It's okay, Sammy," Dean whispered to him, "They'll have food."

Dean started forward, dragging his brother with him along the grass, smiling at the grownups they passed, pretending he had been there the whole time. Several smiled back or waved.

Dean glanced around, trying to figure out what was going on. There was a long rectangular table on the far side of the backyard, with bowls and plates covered in plastic wrap on top, a red and white cooler full of what looked like bottles of water and cans of soda. In between were numerous lawn and camping chairs.

Children ran back and forth across the lawn, screaming and laughing, zigzagging in between the adults who appeared to be suffering their offspring's antics for the good of the company they were in.

"Hey!" a voice shouted and Dean looked up to see a girl a little older than him stalking towards him, hands on the hips of her yellow sundress, her blonde hair in white bows at either side of her head.

"Who are you?" the girl stepped right up to Dean and peered down her nose at him.

"Dean," he replied as though that should have been obvious.

"Dean?" the girl repeated, rolling the word around in her mouth like a marble.

"And this is Sammy."

The girl's eyes moved ever so slightly to take in the youngest Winchester.

"We're your cousins," Dean told her, "Don't you remember? We were at the party last summer?"

The girl leaned back, hand on her chin, thinking.

"I don't remember seeing you," she told him.

"We were there," Dean insisted, "Weren't we, Sammy?"

His brother nodded and his stomach growled.

"Distant cousins," Dean told the girl, "From Canada."

"C'mon Amy! Leave them alone! You're 'it'!" a boy called from behind the girl and she turned away and ran off.

Ignoring the other children, Dean pulled Sammy across the yard.

"Dean," Sammy said, his hazel eyes wide, "You lied to that girl."

Dean stopped and put his hands on his brother's shoulders, "Just a white lie, Sammy. You know what a white lie is?"

The younger boy shook his head.

"It's a lie that doesn't hurt anyone," Dean explained, "If we'd told her the truth, we would have been kicked out."

"With no dinner?" Sammy asked.

Dean nodded, "Yeah, with no dinner. This way we get to eat and no one needs to know we weren't invited."

He could see his little brother didn't fully understand but Sammy nodded anyway. He trusted Dean wholeheartedly.

Taking his sibling's hand, Dean continued on towards the table laden with food. He had nearly reached it when a voice rang out:

"You two wait for everyone else!"

A fat, grey-haired woman waddled over to them, waving a finger.

"Where are your folks?"

"Over there, ma'am," Dean waved his hand vaguely towards a group of grownups chatting while holding cans of beer.

"Well, the burgers are almost done and then you boys can eat, okay?"

Dean nodded and then dragged his brother over to the cooler filled with drinks. Fishing around, he pulled up a can of grape soda, opened it and handed it to Sammy, grabbing a root beer for himself.

"Can I go play with them?" Sammy asked, pointing to a group of boys kicking a soccer ball around.

Dean hesitated for a moment, licking soda from his lips, before nodding. Sammy handed Dean his drink and ran towards the other boys and within seconds had joined their game.

"Dean!" a girl's voice startled the boy and he looked around to see Amy walking towards him.

As she approached, she held her hand out and then suddenly, she touched him on the chest, "Tag! You're 'it'!"

Setting the cans of pop on the grass, Dean sprinted after the girl, laughing despite himself.

_W_

"Okay kiddos! Grub's up!" a man who looked a lot like Santa Claus, wearing a bright red apron instead of a red suit, shouted and all the children stopped what they were doing and flocked to the rectangular table.

Dean caught up with Sammy and got in line as the adults stood on the other side of the table, dishing out spoonfuls of potato and macaroni salad, slid hamburgers and cheeseburgers onto buns, squirted mustard, ketchup and relish onto said burger for their offspring. Dean got a little bit of everything and Sammy, normally a picky eater, followed suit, thanking each grownup as they walked down the line.

Dean led Sammy over to a quiet spot in the yard and sat down on the grass to eat. While they enjoyed the food, the younger sibling talked and talked about the boys he had been playing with, as though they had been friends forever.

It made Dean slightly sad to think that pretty soon they would be leaving town and they'd never see any of these people again. Despite their first encounter, Dean had kind of liked Amy. Even though she was a girl, she wasn't afraid to get dirty and had bright green stains on the knees of her dress after sliding in the grass.

Once all the adults had filled their plates, Dean and Sammy returned to the table for more food. Dean grabbed a second burger and a heaping spoonful of macaroni salad. He filled his brother's plate with potato salad, which he seemed to like the best.

After the second plate, Dean noticed some of the adults were speaking quietly to themselves and glancing in their direction, perhaps trying to figure out who's kids they were.

"Time to go, Sammy," Dean took his brother's hand and pulled him to his feet.

"Really?" the little boy asked.

"Yeah, Sammy," Dean said, eyeing the grownups warily, "It's getting late and Dad might be back soon."

His brother followed him obediently and they slipped away from the party, darted along the side of the house and out onto the street.

Dean walked quickly, half expecting to hear shouting behind them but no one came after them and they left the cul-de-sac peacefully.

They passed the park and Sammy wanted to stop and play.

"Maybe tomorrow morning, okay?" Dean said and Sammy's lower lip trembled.

"Dad might be coming back tonight," Dean reminded him, "Don't you want to see him?"

"Yeah!" Sammy replied and squeezed his big brother's hand.

Dean smiled.

"Hey Sammy?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't tell Dad about the barbeque okay?"

"Why not?" Sammy asked.

"It's just a secret between you and me okay?" Dean told him.

"Why?"

"Because… Because Dad will be sad he didn't get to go," Dean lied, "And we don't want to make Dad sad, right?"

Sammy shook his head, "No!"

"Then it's our secret, right?" Dean prompted.

"Right!" Sammy chirped.

Dean glanced at his little brother; Sammy's expression full of love and trust that it nearly made him cry.

"Love you, Sammy," he whispered.

The younger boy did no hear, he had started humming to himself.

**Author's Note: **

**Just a little oneshot that came to me this afternoon.**

**Please take a moment to leave a review. **


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